Dancing Auroras
by Lake Effect
Summary: Every night, she prayed for the sky to light up, to colour the darkness of his cell. / A Helsa one-shot.


**I have been waiting so long for some Frozen fic-spiration. And finally, here it is! Enjoy, all you lovely Iceburns/Helsa/Hansa fans out there ;D (Wow, everyone really needs to decide on one name for them :P)**

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><p>She couldn't sleep. She could never sleep anymore.<p>

Her bed was warm, comforting; the northern lights streaming in through her window. She lay in silence and watched the sky dance across the glass panes, threatening to spill into the room at any moment. She knew he would be watching it too. Every night, she prayed for the sky to light up, to colour the darkness of his cell.

She wanted to close her eyes and drift off, just as she had forced herself to every night as the Princess of Arendelle. But now, the reigning queen, her mind refused her the privilege. The sleepless nights were becoming unbearable. She had a pile of trade agreements still to read over, not to mention the amount of paperwork that built up on her desk every morning. She couldn't handle it anymore.

With the sunrise, she would leave her bed, a trail of ice sneaking behind her, only stopping upon seeing her sister. Those few hours in the morning seemed the hardest - excluding, of course, every lonely night she spent in her room. She could only ever put on a cheery facade in front of Anna. Letting her sister down after so many years of separation would break both their hearts.

Besides, Elsa reasoned, there was nothing wrong with her. It was just a little insomnia. Of course, it was nothing like what _he_ must be experiencing...

She pressed her palms into her eyelids, willing her thoughts away. A snowflake landed on her cheek.

It was all in her head. She didn't have to feel it if she didn't want to. She could just filter it out.

The room grew colder. The dazzling bright lights outside her window paled, the glass now coated in a thick layer of ice. Her eyes widened.

_Don't you dare._

Without her permission, her hands pushed the blankets off her body and she rose from the bed, her feet planting themselves solidly onto the floor. It felt like such a _decision_, and it worried her that she hadn't noticed herself make it.

As soon as she shut the door, the room flooded with blue-green light.

She felt more awake than ever. Her footsteps didn't echo; her ice didn't glaze the walls. She simply moved through the halls, down staircase after staircase, her fingers tracing the railing. The temperature didn't waver.

His cell was closely guarded. It was unnecessary, really - it wasn't as if he could break the chains with shards of ice, as the prison's last occupant. With one flick of her wrist, the guard dissipated.

She found herself face to face with the cause of her insomnia.

"Can't sleep?"

He turned from the window, a look of surprise on his face. It quickly faded, though, his lips settling back into an expressionless state. His green eyes studied her thin frame as she leant against the door.

"I suppose not." He glanced back at the aurora. "The sky's awake, so I'm awake." He shrugged his shoulders.

Her breath hitched in her throat.

"Right..." she managed to choke out.

"And what about you, Queen Elsa? Too many important, queenly duties to attend to? Can't get a moment to yourself?"

He was smirking now.

She sighed and shut the door behind her, moving closer towards him. He raised his eyebrows. His demeanour barely faltered, while she'd long since given up on hers.

"I...can't sleep, actually."

"And why are you here?"

Leave it to him to ask all of the questions she didn't have answers to.

She sat down on the stone bench next to him. His gloved hands were on his elbows, holding his arms tightly to his chest. She watched him let out a puff of cold air.

"It...uh...must be cold in here."

He gave her a sidelong glance. "No, it's just like a sauna. I feel like I'm melting," he said dryly.

She winced. Seeing him like this was beginning to trigger her powers, tiny prickles of ice grazing her fingertips. She wished she still had her gloves.

Forcing herself to take deep breaths, she thawed the crystals before they could turn the room to ice. He was already freezing; he didn't need her adding to it.

He watched her calm her breathing. It was amazing how far she'd come - he remembered the day of her coronation, the icy spikes that had escaped her palms and started it all. She'd learnt to control it. And she was controlling it...for him.

In that one second, if Elsa had looked, she would have seen the faintest hint of a smile on his lips.

"I'm sorry I can't warm it up. I can only make it worse...that's all I'm capable of - freezing things. Freezing hearts," she added, her voice barely audible.

She felt herself shudder.

He desperately wanted to reach out and touch her. But he held back, his hands still clasped firmly together.

"But you can also thaw them," Hans offered, his expression softening.

She looked up at him. Their eyes met, the same blue-green colours as the northern lights surrounding them.

"You thawed Anna's, didn't you?"

She didn't reply.

"And...I mean, I'm just guessing here, but it's probably not the only frozen heart you've ever thawed." He rushed through the sentence, his gaze averted from her.

She felt a spark shoot through her body. His words replayed over and over, replacing every other thought in her mind.

Well, all but one.

She waited for him to look up before replying, her answer hanging in the air between them as her snowflakes once had.

"Love will thaw."


End file.
